.mobi .mobi dead or .mobi on NP dead ?

[tony_np]

I visited here every day.But seems no more news here.

.mobi dead or .mobi on NP dead ?

 

[mjnels]

please disregard my last 2 posts. :notme:

and anything else you post for the next year?

 

[scandiman]

Would you believe falling coconuts kill more people each year than sharks do?

And absolutely everyone who eats broccoli will die...........eventually :hehe:

What coconuts and sharks has to do with .mobi promotion you'll have to explain to me..BTW, how many coconuts kill sharks? (Before you make any assumptions you got to wonder if anyone is counting...probably some overpaid bureaucrat in the US govt Fish and Wildlife service, but I digress :lol

 

[dax44]

WOW am I glad I have missed this debate .. I think once the new gTLDs start to flow there could be a few heart attacks on here .. seriously calm down everyone - remember the golden rule - spread your investments.

Anyone who only invests in .com is dreaming. They are the exact same people who did not buy lll.coms when they were 70 bucks.

No seriously - I think 10 years from now all TLDs will be accepted . People are naturally lazy - if they can just remember the first bit of the domain and assume its a .com then they are happier - but in time everyone will learn to take note of the TLD too. Whatsit.whatsit - simple as that - not so hard is it?

I have been thinking its time to get rid of my lll.com domains - they really have plateaued over the last 5 years ....

AND I can think of loads of great .mobi names - eg. pizza.mobi , nytaxi.mobi - in fact I am just about to launch one
myself .. plus slimline, cutdown versions of normal sites - godaddy could use one for sure.

I may be going out on a limb here - but I suspect $10k invested in lll.me, lll.info and lll.mobi (approx 100 domains) would be worth far more in 5 years than one of my lll.com domains - anyone want to bet on that? I may just try that ... will this thread still be here in 5 years?

 

[-REECE-]

The point I was trying to make is that the human brain isn't wired to compute certain things properly. A gambler keeps losing money over and over again... But then he wins a little, then he wins a little more, now he thinks he's on some kind of a hot streak (which is statistically impossible as games of chance are independant events) and then he loses everything he won and then some (or all). Speculative domain extensions are a gamble -- nothing more, nothing less. Just like at a casino, there will be a few big winners and tends to be a whole lot of losers. Many people don't learn and go back again and again thinking their luck will somehow change.

Blame it on dopamine.

And absolutely everyone who eats broccoli will die...........eventually :hehe:

What coconuts and sharks has to do with .mobi promotion you'll have to explain to me..BTW, how many coconuts kill sharks? (Before you make any assumptions you got to wonder if anyone is counting...probably some overpaid bureaucrat in the US govt Fish and Wildlife service, but I digress :lol

 

[dax44]

My biggest concern with investing in dot mobi would be the release of future extensions which could rival it, given that it has already been around for a few years and as mentioned in previous posts, not yet gained a significant foothold.
There is talk of extensions to fit your brand becoming available, how about the mobile phone manufacturers having their own extensions?

OK let's think of a better TLD for mobile phone friendly websites.

.phone
.tel
.mobile
.mob (nice)
.pda
.iphone
.portable (french)
.go
.small
.simple
.live
.go

so far .mobi is as good as any of these.

i like .go - does that exist?

 

[000]

OK let's think of a better TLD for mobile phone friendly websites.

.phone
.tel
.mobile
.mob (nice)
.pda
.iphone
.portable (french)
.go
.small
.simple
.live
.go

so far .mobi is as good as any of these.

i like .go - does that exist?

.go does not exist, however I believe that only ccTLD's are allowed to use two-letter extensions (correct me if I'm wrong). I just know that the shortest gTLD is three letters long.

In my opinion .mobi was a great choice for the extension - and anyone who thinks that an extra letter is a big deal is out of touch with reality.

 

[-REECE-]

The biggest competitor to .mobi in my opinion is itself. Mtld needs to get those premium domains in the hands of non-domainers if the extension is going to have any chance of success. As Snoop said earlier, Mtld's vision of success most likely doesn't line up with the interests of domainers.

 

[000]

The biggest competitor to .mobi in my opinion is itself.

Agree.

Mtld needs to get those premium domains in the hands of non-domainers if the extension is going to have any chance of success. As Snoop said earlier, Mtld's vision of success most likely doesn't line up with the interests of domainers.

They are making slow but sure progress on getting end users involved... but yes hopefully they start doing something with those premium domains soon. At least we've seen two of the two-character .mobi's being put to great use (NV.mobi and 53.mobi). It's a start... and hopefully a sign of good things ahead.

 

[scandiman]

Speculative domain extensions are a gamble -- nothing more, nothing less.

Personally I think there's a whole lot more to go on than just blind luck when it comes to domains. Targeting certain market segments, building, growing traffic, moentizing, etc... a lot more can be done rather than just a roll of the dice. But some people don't learn from their mistakes and keep headed down bad roads, problem is often they don't know a good one from a bad one to begin with and never seem to figure it out. This is where the blind bashing and blind support for .mobi has been so misguided and unhelpful, blind bashers saying its dead and telling everyone to stay away, and blind supporters pretending that every string of characters that precedes the .mobi makes for a good domain name. Both are dead wrong. People are profiting from .mobi, be it resales, parking or development, but crap names aren't the way to do it.

I've been running my own experiment on this and will continue to. I've got a horrifically bad domain name that actually has keyword search volume, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.mobi, which is a developed site (pretty weakly I might ad). I do zero promotion and while it still hasn't paid for it's own reg fees it does collect some admob revenue and does get traffic. I'll never get rich off of this domain, I'll be glad if it ever pays for its own reg fees. I'm curious if it breaks even in other extension also but I only have the .mobi. The point of it is to see how good a crap name can do in .mobi and so far, it ain't so good. And on the flip side I'm working hard on projects like Lodging.mobi to build real business around. Regardless of quantity, people need to focus on quality names or have a specific strategy in mind for their registrations. There's a whole lot of crap that has been and continues to be regged in all extensions, a lot of people making the same old mistakes over and over again. Thankfully the LookAtMyLame.mobi threads have diminished, I saw so much money being flushed away again and again on bad domains, and then some of those same people turned around and later declared the extension was crap because they couldn't make a dime on their crap domains. Get a plan together, do some research, know the market, get some quality domains and move forward, be realistic while also striving to succeed, whatever extension has your fancy.

 

[000]

I think a big problem is that some of you seem to lump all .mobi supporters into the same category. Yes, some will lose money on .mobi, some make poor investment choices... but some make wise investment choices and will make (or have already made) good money. I would put myself into the latter category, as I've already made a nice overall profit and still have 200+ .mobi's left over, including ones like StLouis.mobi, FortMyers.mobi, CapeCoral.mobi, Clarksville.mobi, Herald.mobi, Cheesecake.mobi and Innovate.mobi... to name a handful. Remember, these domains were all paid for by my previous .mobi sales.

So keep that in mind when you say that .mobi is a bad investment. Fact is, if you're a wise domainer, there IS money to be made with .mobi.. and just because you haven't done it doesn't change that fact. There are a lot of domainers who have lost huge sums on .com too. Why point fingers?

 

[-REECE-]

You're a good example of someone who has created success for yourself. My guess would be that most new (2006++)pure domainers are struggling to make a decent wage and I think we'll see more turn to development. Perhaps that's a blessing in disguise -- we all know top developers have made a couple digits more than the top domainers

Personally I think there's a whole lot more to go on than just blind luck when it comes to domains. Targeting certain market segments, building, growing traffic, moentizing, etc... a lot more can be done rather than just a roll of the dice. But some people don't learn from their mistakes and keep headed down bad roads, problem is often they don't know a good one from a bad one to begin with and never seem to figure it out. This is where the blind bashing and blind support for .mobi has been so misguided and unhelpful, blind bashers saying its dead and telling everyone to stay away, and blind supporters pretending that every string of characters that precedes the .mobi makes for a good domain name. Both are dead wrong. People are profiting from .mobi, be it resales, parking or development, but crap names aren't the way to do it.

I've been running my own experiment on this and will continue to. I've got a horrifically bad domain name that actually has keyword search volume, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.mobi, which is a developed site (pretty weakly I might ad). I do zero promotion and while it still hasn't paid for it's own reg fees it does collect some admob revenue and does get traffic. I'll never get rich off of this domain, I'll be glad if it ever pays for its own reg fees. I'm curious if it breaks even in other extension also but I only have the .mobi. The point of it is to see how good a crap name can do in .mobi and so far, it ain't so good. And on the flip side I'm working hard on projects like Lodging.mobi to build real business around. Regardless of quantity, people need to focus on quality names or have a specific strategy in mind for their registrations. There's a whole lot of crap that has been and continues to be regged in all extensions, a lot of people making the same old mistakes over and over again. Thankfully the LookAtMyLame.mobi threads have diminished, I saw so much money being flushed away again and again on bad domains, and then some of those same people turned around and later declared the extension was crap because they couldn't make a dime on their crap domains. Get a plan together, do some research, know the market, get some quality domains and move forward, be realistic while also striving to succeed, whatever extension has your fancy.

 

[000]

My guess would be that most new (2006++)pure domainers are struggling to make a decent wage and I think we'll see more turn to development. Perhaps that's a blessing in disguise -- we all know top developers have made a couple digits more than the top domainers

Just want to stress that this goes for domainers in any extension... not just .mobi. Most pure domainers (especially new ones) don't make much money, regardless of what extension(s) they deal with. I think that's what you meant, just wanted to stress that part of it.

I've made more money off .mobi than .com... does that mean .mobi is a better investment than .com? No - it all depends on your personal business style. DotMobi has apparently been a wise route for me to choose. Anyone who says that .mobi is a bad investment deserves a good roundhouse kick to the face; one simply cannot make such a blanket statement.

 

[exsedo]

and anything else you post for the next year?

 

[namewaiter]

It is somewhat a statement about the extension that people would even bother taking a photos of a .mobi ad and posting them up. I saw a .cc domain on a billboard the other day so maybe I should take a pic of that. Would it be a sign of a healthy tld or would the mere fact that a .mobi ad is "newsworthy" be saying something else?

Imagine if someone posted about how they saw a .com, .co.uk or .ca url? That would be about the most boring thread ever.

unbelievable ... naysayers for the longest time have been saying... "show my an advertised .mobi", "nobody markets their .mobi", "when was the last time you saw a .mobi used in the media", "the general public will never know .mobi exists"

so when it's pointed out, and proven, that these things are starting to happen, like foxnews and the before mentioned bofa we are just being overzealous ... give me a break!

 

[dotcomisdead]

You're a good example of someone who has created success for yourself. My guess would be that most new (2006++)pure domainers are struggling to make a decent wage and I think we'll see more turn to development. Perhaps that's a blessing in disguise -- we all know top developers have made a couple digits more than the top domainers

That's just how it us, some years the brick makers make the best money, other years it's the house builders make the money... you pays yer money & takes your choice

Developers pay with their own blood sweat & tears and developing sites is just as speculative although they pay with time rather than cash... but given that time = money for anyone in business what is the difference?

The dotmobi pure-play domainers will have their day... that I am sure of.

 

[000]

The dotmobi pure-play domainers will have their day... that I am sure of.

Some yes, some no, imho... but only time will tell

 

[dotcomisdead]

unbelievable ... naysayers for the longest time have been saying... "show my an advertised .mobi", "nobody markets their .mobi", "when was the last time you saw a .mobi used in the media", "the general public will never know .mobi exists"

so when it's pointed out, and proven, that these things are starting to happen, like foxnews and the before mentioned bofa we are just being overzealous ... give me a break!

touche! :bingo: (but would you expect anything else?)

---------- Post added at 11:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:57 PM ----------

WOW am I glad I have missed this debate .. I think once the new gTLDs start to flow there could be a few heart attacks on here .. seriously calm down everyone - remember the golden rule - spread your investments.

Anyone who only invests in .com is dreaming. They are the exact same people who did not buy lll.coms when they were 70 bucks.

No seriously - I think 10 years from now all TLDs will be accepted . People are naturally lazy - if they can just remember the first bit of the domain and assume its a .com then they are happier - but in time everyone will learn to take note of the TLD too. Whatsit.whatsit - simple as that - not so hard is it?

I have been thinking its time to get rid of my lll.com domains - they really have plateaued over the last 5 years ....

AND I can think of loads of great .mobi names - eg. pizza.mobi , nytaxi.mobi - in fact I am just about to launch one
myself .. plus slimline, cutdown versions of normal sites - godaddy could use one for sure.

I may be going out on a limb here - but I suspect $10k invested in lll.me, lll.info and lll.mobi (approx 100 domains) would be worth far more in 5 years than one of my lll.com domains - anyone want to bet on that? I may just try that ... will this thread still be here in 5 years?

This is precisiely what I've been saying for some time now... I agree that $10k invested in one LLL.com (or even 2!) compared to $10k invested in a basket of other LLL's in say; 5 years time... I'll take the basket everytime...

My other bug-bear is that many viewpoints are related to NOW... what people with sites NOW will do for mobile..
They completely ignore the fact that 1,000's of new businesses start every single day of the week... these folks don't own killer dotcoms and are unlikely to want to pay for them; they are however buying countrycodes NOT dotcoms in many, many cases... they will also be considering dotmobi!

I will wager $50 on your side of the bet :sold:

---------- Post added at 11:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:05 PM ----------

reserving 5000 premium domains, selling them off one by one, and focusing all energy on getting domainers invested in the extension really was genius on their part... Not good for the .mobi ecosystem however.

I disagree with the latter part of that statement; I believe that it is good for the 'ecosystem'
I agree that it was genius to hold them back... 5,000 domains will not make a big hole in the 'free float' of names out there but when dotmobi comes of age the premiums will be released to ensure that most end up developed... as opposed to what has happened to far more than 5,000 dotcoms... parked!

Has anyone taken a look at the 5,000 premiums (or at least those being held back) and checked the matching dotcom to see if they are well developed or parked or non-resolving?

 

[exsedo]

OK let's think of a better TLD for mobile phone friendly websites.

.phone
.tel
.mobile
.mob (nice)
.pda
.iphone
.portable (french)
.go
.small
.simple
.live
.go

so far .mobi is as good as any of these.

i like .go - does that exist?

how about :-
.nokia
.wii
.pod
.ipod
.sony
.lg

 

[dotcomisdead]

how about :-
.nokia
.wii
.pod
.ipod
.sony
.lg

You've done it again! :lol:


But it illustrates a good point because I'm fairly sure that we will be seeing some of these in the not too distant future;

nokia.mobi
wii.mobi
pod.mobi
ipod.mobi
sony.mobi
lg.mobi

 

[kemjika11]

Oh man, this thread has gotten a bit wilder, but juicier!First of all, there is already considerable dilution in the extensions market. Each new one that starts,gets rationalized, and patronized(by domainers too), and its a cycle i've seen at least 4 times. I think .mobi is struggling, and LLL and one word owners are probably going to get the best out of .mobi sales on the aftermarket.A few notes:
1.ccTLDs are in, and there's growth potential
2..mobi is struggling
3.THe mobile web could boost .mobi
5.Are people developing .mobis? and,
6.Are people really ready to browse the mobile web and embrace all its functionalities?

THat is .mobi's future to me...

 

[snoop]

I may be going out on a limb here - but I suspect $10k invested in lll.me, lll.info and lll.mobi (approx 100 domains) would be worth far more in 5 years than one of my lll.com domains - anyone want to bet on that? I may just try that ... will this thread still be here in 5 years?

The thing with those types of investments is they have huge holding costs. A low quality LLL.mobi would need to double in value in a year just for the owner to be in a breakeven scenario. People have made the same argument for years, and those people have stayed poor.

 

[dotcomisdead]

Oh man, this thread has gotten a bit wilder, but juicier!First of all, there is already considerable dilution in the extensions market. Each new one that starts,gets rationalized, and patronized(by domainers too), and its a cycle i've seen at least 4 times. I think .mobi is struggling, and LLL and one word owners are probably going to get the best out of .mobi sales on the aftermarket.
A few notes:
1.ccTLDs are in, and there's growth potential
2..is mobi is struggling?
3.The mobile web will boost .mobi
5. People are developing .mobis! and,
6. People really are ready to browse the mobile web and embrace all its functionalities!

The future is .mobi to me...

:bingo:

just a minor edit required & you're spot on!

 

[snoop]

unbelievable ... naysayers for the longest time have been saying... "show my an advertised .mobi", "nobody markets their .mobi", "when was the last time you saw a .mobi used in the media", "the general public will never know .mobi exists"

so when it's pointed out, and proven, that these things are starting to happen, like foxnews and the before mentioned bofa we are just being overzealous ... give me a break!

This is exaggerated in my view because there has always been some promotion of these domains, eg bank of america. What many naysayers have been saying for a while is that the level of promotion is insignificant in comparison to the promotion of .mobi alternatives (such as subdomains).

I don't think things are "starting to happen" it is just the same low usage levels that has been going on for a couple of years, yes every 6 months someone will start a thread about how they saw a .mobi advertised. The day people see a .mobi advertised and doesn't say a word about it (because it is commonplace and no longer newsworthy), that will be the day "things are starting to happen" for .mobi.

 

[dotcomisdead]

The thing with those types of investments is they have huge holding costs. A low quality LLL.mobi would need to double in value in a year just for the owner to be in a breakeven scenario. People have made the same argument for years, and those people have stayed poor.

keep your perspective though! We are talking about a $10,000 investment not a single domain at regfee...

So, pro-rata you need to say that holding 50 names at say $8 per annum = $400 per annum (4% of the 'fund') Compared to $8 for a single name... 0.08%

Then you have the downside risk of a single $10k dotcom - easily 20% potential on the downside as dilution starts to really eat into all but the highest tier of domains.. that's a $2,000 cost right there.

5 years & your basket of domains (50 names) has cost you $2,000 to 'hold' total invested $12,000

A single dotcom in 5 years may or may not have held its value... it may or may not have risen & it may or may not have collapsed in value.

whereas your basket of 50 names have spread your risk.... 20 names might be worthless... 20 names might be worth $200 each... (covering your holding costs)

in this scenario the other 10 names would need to average $1,000 each to breakeven but in 5 years they could be worth anything from $0 to ..... well, whatever... But I'd wager that 50 comparable names in alternative extensions will beat a single dotcom..

But... I'll be quite straight with you... it's not a done deal.. but I would, hand on heart go for the basket of 50 non-dotcom domains rather than a single $10k dotcom..

Bottom line, neither investment is for widows or orphans!

Toodle pip

 

[snoop]

Then you have the downside risk of a single $10k dotcom - easily 20% potential on the downside as dilution starts to really eat into all but the highest tier of domains.. that's a $2,000 cost right there.

5 years & your basket of domains (50 names) has cost you $2,000 to 'hold' total invested $12,000

A single dotcom in 5 years may or may not have held its value... it may or may not have risen & it may or may not have collapsed in value.

whereas your basket of 50 names have spread your risk.... 20 names might be worthless... 20 names might be worth $200 each... (covering your holding costs)

in this scenario the other 10 names would need to average $1,000 each to breakeven but in 5 years they could be worth anything from $0 to ..... well, whatever... But I'd wager that 50 comparable names in alternative extensions will beat a single dotcom..

Alot of this is numbers from nowhere. You've applied "fuzzy logic" and it has spat out the answer you want, *buy alt tlds*.

The fact is collections of cheap names have very high holding costs. The same is true for low quality .com's, over time they have seriously underperfomed names that do not have reg fees as a major component of their price. The odds are stacked against the person with high holding costs and names of uncertain value.

When you buy lots of cheap alt tld you aren't really spreading risk, the asset you are buying are all in the same category (high risk alternatives to the norm). Diversification does not mean not mean buying unusual assets of low value. If you were about to retire an investment advisor wouldn't be saying telling you to put 50% of your money in 100 different laregly unknown investments that in total represent 1% of the market. Most of the market, 99% of it value wise, is c/n/o and country codes.

but I would, hand on heart go for the basket of 50 non-dotcom domains rather than a single $10k dotcom..

Dude, that is obvious, whether it is a good idea or not is another thing entirely.